Mission school board trustee fined by Elections BC for violating election rules

VICTORIA — Elections BC has fined a Mission school board trustee for violating election rules in the 2022 municipal election.

According to an administrative penalty letter on its website, Linda Hamel contravened rules governing how much candidates can contribute to their own campaigns.

Elections BC said it provided Hamel with a copy of its investigator’s report into this matter, which included preliminary findings. According to the provincial elections agency, Hamel responded to the investigator’s report with an acknowledgement of regret and did not dispute the information contained in the report.

Hamel was a trustee candidate for the Mission Board of Education in the 2022 general local elections in which she functioned as her own financial agent. For the 2022 calendar year, unendorsed candidates were permitted to contribute up to $2,500 to their own campaign, Elections BC wrote in the administrative penalty letter to Hamel. On November 1, 2022, Hamel filed a disclosure statement with Elections BC indicating she had contributed exactly $3,250.05 to her own campaign in 2022.